


without caring twopence how often it has been told before

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Series: Good Intentions 2020 [2]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: When a ship with red sails arrives at Cair Paravel, flying the royal standard, Edmund decides to investigate.All past Kings and Queens of Narnia are already here, after all - all but one.
Series: Good Intentions 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978876
Kudos: 54
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	without caring twopence how often it has been told before

**Author's Note:**

> Posted as part of the Good Intentions WIP Fest! 
> 
> I don't like to say that this is wholly abandoned, but I've been toying with it for so long without success that it feels better to release it into the wild and have done with it for now.
> 
> Also Ed has a wife here because I'm one of those boring "It seems strange to me that _none_ of the Pevensies married in Narnia" people.

_Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. -_ **_C.S. Lewis_ **

* * *

* * *

The ship coming in to dock at Cair Paravel has a gleaming hull and sails of brilliant crimson silk that billow becomingly in the breeze. The banner flying from her mast is snapping merrily, and cannot be clearly seen from the castle high above.

Edmund watches nonetheless. Few ships come to Cair Paravel now - most run to Paradise, as they did so many years ago, across hill and dale and river-ford all the way to the Garden, swimming upstream and jaunting through the mountains with joyous laughter and voices raised gaily in song - and so the rare newcomers that arrive this way are doubly interesting.

This one moreso even than usual. He cannot remember when last a ship docked without white sails. It stirs something in his memory, but he has not the time to consider it. 

Below on the dock, a party of three has gathered to meet the ship. He can just about make them out, can discern nothing beyond their number, and is so focused on this strange quarry that he doesn’t notice Mirella’s presence until she slips her arm through his.

“You’re distracted, husband,” she says fondly, turning his face to her own with a gentle touch. “Does this not delight you? I was sure it would, as soon as I saw the banner.”

Edmund looks back to the ship, ready to complain that _he_ cannot see the banner, only to catch the glimmer of sunlight on a thread-of-gold lion rampant on a crimson field.

Only a King or Queen of Narnia can fly that banner, and all of them are here.

All barring one.

  
  



End file.
